


Christmas Time Is Here

by twtd



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, sorta fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21875353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twtd/pseuds/twtd
Summary: Pippa’s working on Christmas. Hecate’s just looking for someplace quiet to get some work done.A coffee shop AU.Pippa wiped down the front of the espresso machine with a damp rag. The coffee shop was deserted, so it wasn't like she had much else to do, and the coffee grounds had a tendency to get everywhere if you didn't regularly keep them in check. Once that was done, she looked around the empty shop and thought about calling it a day. It was only her first year open, and not closing on Christmas was an experiment. A failed experiment from the looks of things. She'd had a few customers when she'd first opened that morning, parents up too late putting together their children's toys and in desperate need of some caffeine, most likely. Still, those few customers didn't make staying open worth it, and standing around in an empty coffee shop by yourself wasn't much fun. Still, no one told her opening her own coffee shop would be glamorous.
Relationships: Hardbroom/Pentangle (Worst Witch), Hecate Hardbroom/Pippa Pentangle
Comments: 21
Kudos: 65
Collections: Hicsqueak Christmas Coffee Challenge, The Worst Witch Winter Warmers 2019





	Christmas Time Is Here

**Author's Note:**

> Nike_SGA and I did a thing where we both wrote a fic that started with the same line. This is my half of the results. 
> 
> If you too want to write a fic starting with the line, “Pippa wiped down the front of the espresso machine with a damp rag,” you should go for it!

Pippa wiped down the front of the espresso machine with a damp rag. The coffee shop was deserted, so it wasn't like she had much else to do, and the coffee grounds had a tendency to get everywhere if you didn't regularly keep them in check. Once that was done, she looked around the empty shop and thought about calling it a day. It was only her first year open, and not closing on Christmas was an experiment. A failed experiment from the looks of things. She'd had a few customers when she'd first opened that morning, parents up too late putting together their children's toys and in desperate need of some caffeine, most likely. Still, those few customers didn't make staying open worth it, and standing around in an empty coffee shop by yourself wasn't much fun. Still, no one told her opening her own coffee shop would be glamorous. 

Mind made up, Pippa wiped down the counter one last time before tossing the rag into the laundry bin to be dealt with later. She was halfway to the door and untying her apron when it opened, the bell over it tinkling as a striking woman stepped in out of the lightly falling snow. Pippa stopped in her tracks. 

"Can I, um… That is to say… We were about to…" Pippa knew she was gaping and stuttering but the woman really was breathtaking in her severity, in the rigid posture of her spine, in the arch of her eyebrows, which reigned over a skeptical look that verged on a sneer, in the way her hair was scraped back in the tightest bun Pippa had ever seen. Pippa just knew that this woman didn't tolerate chaos and some small, impish part of Pippa wanted to antagonize her enough to know just how she would react to something not falling neatly into line. But Pippa reigned in that impulse. The woman was a customer and there was no sense in upsetting someone who had braved the snow on Christmas and was about to pay her good money for the privilege of drinking her imported-directly-from-Indonesia, freshly ground, pulled-from-the-espresso-machine-at-the-perfect-moment coffee. She needed to pull it together. 

"Can I get you something?" Pippa still stood in the middle of the shop as she asked and the other woman looked at her skeptically. She ducked back behind the counter and started to retie her apron. The woman approached the counter. 

"Yes. I would like your largest cup of tea. Black," the woman said, her words clipped. 

"Tea?" Pippa asked dubiously. While she had a perfectly serviceable selection of teas, they weren't really, well, they weren't really her _thing_. It was, after all, a _coffee_ shop. 

"Yes," the woman reiterated. "Tea." She said it as if Pippa might have had some trouble understanding her. Pippa supposed the woman was correct in that assessment. Pippa didn't understand. Who went to a coffee shop and ordered tea? Not when there was an excellent tea shop just around the corner. She'd gone over and introduced herself when she'd just opened the coffee shop and had a lovely cup of something that tasted of citrus and vanilla. She and the owner, Julie, had gotten on famously. But oh, Julie's place was probably closed for the day while Julie and her daughter celebrated Christmas together. 

"Right." Pippa slid her tea selection over where the woman could pick whichever she wanted and turned to fill a cup with hot water. When she turned back around, the woman had a teabag in her hand, which she promptly put into the water. 

Pippa keyed in the price of the tea and took the woman's card from her to ring her up. She looked at the card as she waited for the receipt to print. 

"Hecate. That's an unusual name." Pippa knew she shouldn't comment, but she just couldn't help herself. 

"My mother was a professor of Antiquities," Hecate said dryly, not inviting further conversation. 

"Right." Pippa handed Hecate her card back. Hecate put it away, picked up her tea, and retreated to one of the tables by the window. Pippa looked past Hecate and saw the snow coming down more heavily. When she focused her attention on the other woman, she saw that Hecate had pulled a laptop from her bag and was setting it up. Just how long was she planning on staying? Pippa only just stopped herself from sighing. It wasn't that she minded working, it was just that her brain was already at home by the time Hecate had opened the coffee shop door and it was hard to refocus again. 

Pippa leaned against a barstool behind the counter and looked around. Everything was clean and put away. The pastry case was stocked for the next day. The decorations shone, refracting light everywhere. There was nothing for her to do. Christmas music floated out of the small set of speakers she had set up. She bounced one of her feet to the beat and tried not to stare at Hecate, but Hecate was the only interesting thing going on, so it was hard. Except for the music and the sound of Hecate typing, the coffee shop descended into silence. 

Five minutes passed. Hecate removed her tea bag from her cup. She took a sip but if it was good or bad, Pippa couldn't tell. Hecate hadn't reacted in any way. 

Ten minutes passed. Pippa wondered just what Hecate was working on, but there was no good way to ask her. 

Fifteen minutes passed. Hecate finished her tea and set it aside. She didn't get up for a refill or pack up her things. She simply kept typing. 

Twenty minutes passed. "It's rude to stare." Hecate's voice cut through the Christmas carols. She hadn't looked up from her computer. Pippa wasn't sure how Hecate had even noticed her staring, as wrapped up in her work as she appeared to be. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was doing it." Pippa shifted on her barstool, looked down at her fingernails, then back up. "Can I get you a refill?"

Hecate finally looked up. She blinked as if Pippa had somehow disrupted the order of the universe. Still, she managed a, "yes, please." 

Pippa hopped off of her stool and poured another cup of hot water. She pulled out another teabag to go with it, then she walked it over to Hecate. "This one's on the house." 

"That isn’t necessary.” Hecate was already reaching into her purse. 

“I know it isn’t necessary, but it’s Christmas.” Pippa shrugged. “And it’s my shop. I can give things away to whomever I please.” 

Hecate sighed but returned her purse to the extra chair where it had been sitting previously. “I suppose you insist.” 

“I do.” Pippa smiled brightly. She returned to her bar stool and once again tried not to stare. She pulled out her phone and swung her foot back and forth as she looked at her mother's Instagram account and sighed over the pictures of the beach her parents had decamped to for the winter holidays. 

"Did you want me to leave?" Hecate's voice cut through the silence. 

"What?" Pippa looked up in confusion. 

"I said, did you want me to leave? Your sighing is disruptive and if you've somewhere else you'd rather be, I can find another place to do my work." Hecate was already closing her laptop. 

"No!" Pippa shook her head. "Not at all. I was just looking at pictures from my parent's holiday and wishing I was with them, that's all. No need for you to run off." 

"Ah." Hecate looked down at her hands then back up before opening her laptop again but she didn't immediately start typing. "I suppose that's where you'd be if you didn't have a coffee shop to run?" Hecate looked over Pippa's shoulder but focused on Pippa again as she started to speak. 

"Most likely." Pippa shrugged. "We've never been much for a Christmas by the fire. Unless that fire was somewhere in the Alps. My parents like to travel, and they might be getting older now, but that hasn't stopped them. They're in the Bahamas this year." She tilted her head and looked at Hecate curiously. 

"Where would you be at Christmas if you could go anywhere. Some other coffee shop, like you said? Or with family? Or…?" Pippa shrugged again as she trailed off. 

"I am exactly where I want to be today, though I do wish the tea shop was open. Your tea is… adequate."

"But you'd rather enjoy something less pedestrian?" Pippa teased.

"Yes." Hecate pursed her lips. "They have a smoked Russian tea that I find particularly appealing when the weather is like this." She nodded toward the window where the snow was still falling. 

"I'm sure it's lovely. We're just not big on tea around here." Pippa smiled. This was more conversation than she would have thought she'd get out of Hecate. 

Hecate sighed and looked down. "I suppose I will have a cappuccino." She shook her head at herself. 

"You know, you don't have to have coffee just to humor me." But Pippa had already stood up and moved over to the coffee grinder. 

"If I'm to judge your shop fairly, it seems necessary that I try your speciality. Hopefully your espresso is more impressive than your tea selection." Hecate crossed her arms as she watched Pippa. 

"A challenge then." Pippa's eyes twinkled as she tamped down the coffee grounds then hooked the filter into the machine. While she waited for the coffee to brew, she started frothing milk. A minute later, she had everything assembled in a mug with the coffee shop's logo on it. She met Hecate's eyes as she rounded the counter and walked over to the other woman's table. "You know, if you really wanted to give it a fair shot, you'd try the espresso by itself." 

Pippa placed the mug down on the table and waited with her hands clasped together for Hecate to try it. "Perhaps, but I don't particularly enjoy coffee without a bit of milk."

Hecate lifted the mug and took a small sip. Pippa waited impatiently. "Well?" she asked.

"Yes, it's much better than your tea." Hecate nodded approvingly. 

"Good." A smile returned to Pippa's face. "So, what are you working on that's so important that you're doing it on Christmas day?" Pippa watched as warring impulses crossed Hecate's face. She hoped the one to answer her question won and not the one to tell her it was none of her business. 

"I teach organic chemistry at the university. I'm in the middle of writing an article, but between grading and my research, I rarely have time to work on it. Today seemed ideal, but my neighbor's cat is making a nuisance of himself in my garden, so I've had to find somewhere quieter to work." Hecate sipped at her cappuccino and somehow did it without messing up her impeccable lipstick. Pippa envied her that skill. Hers always got all over the mugs. 

"Hence why you've decided to join me for the afternoon," Pippa said. 

"Indeed." Hecate looked down at her laptop. Pippa took that as her cue to leave the woman alone. 

"Right, well, I'll just be over behind the counter if you need anything." Pippa retreated once again. She poured herself her own cup of coffee, dumped in too much sugar and a dollop of milk and settled in to stare at her phone while Hecate worked.

**Author's Note:**

> Like everything I’ve written lately, there might be more of this, but don’t hold your breath.
> 
> Comments are great and I’m on tumblr @twtd11


End file.
